The Business of Recreation

T has been estimated that I6, ooo, ooo American tourists visited Canada in I929, and even during the depression year 1933 no fewer than II, ooo, ooo Americans crossed the Canadian border. The expenditures of these tourists in 1929 amounted to 295, 585, oo00o, or more than a third of the total value of United States exports to Canada in that year. During the same year American tourists spent 30I, 142, 000 on travel in Europe and the Levant, ' or about 28 per cent of the value of United States exports to Europe. The expenditures of American tourists on foreign travel in I929 amounted to 839, ooo, ooo, or more than the net income of all New England corporations then paying federal income tax. These figures may give some idea of the magnitude and economic significance of the American tourist movement in so far as it involves foreign travel. Of yet greater importance is the domestic movement with which this paper is concerned. It is estimated that nearly four billion dollars was spent in motor camping and vacation motor travel in the United States in 1929. The State Hotel Commission estimates that 1, 750, 000 tourists spent 625, 000, 000 in Florida during the past season (1934-1935). In Maine the tourist crop ranks second among the state's industries; it is placed third in Michigan and fourth in Minnesota.